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ADAMI Valerio
(1935)
"Libérer la main de la dépendance du regard "
Valerio ADAMI - Detailed biography

Adami was born in Bologna in 1935. In 1951, he was accepted into the Accademia di Brera, and there studied as a draughtsman until 1954 in the studio of Achille Funi. He went to Paris in 1955, where he met and was influenced by Roberto Matta and Wilfredo Lam. His first solo exhibition held in 1959 in Milan.

In these early years of his career, Adami's works were expressionistic, but by the time of his second exhibition in 1964 at Kassel, he had developed a style of painting reminiscent of French cloisonnism, featuring regions of flat color bordered by black lines. Adami's subjects were highly stylized and often presented in fragments, as seen in Telescoping Rooms (1965).

In the 1970s, Adami began to address politics in his art, and incorporated subject matter such as modern European history, literature, philosophy, and mythology. He became one the main representative of New Figuration. He develops a style which is caracterized by elaborate drawing, which color appears to divert, modify or amplify. Adami defines painting as « a complex proposal, in which previous visual experiences constitute unpredictable combinations”. The figurative aspect of his works proceeds from a reconstruction of perception aiming at an appropriation of images and not at a direct reference to perceived reality.

The works of his most recent period are perhaps his most interesting and attractive. They demonstrate his desire, as recounted in Jane Kramer's "Letter from Europe" in the May 14, 1984 issue of The New Yorker magazine, to reawaken civilization’s desire for a space to dream and to fantasize by revivifying the myths of Western culture and history, peopling his works with characters from Ovidian scenes and other fictive moments that might enable us to once again, renewed, begin the search for the springs of sexuality, desire, beauty, and creativity.

From 1985 to 1998, there were four retrospective exhibits of Adami's work in Paris, the Centre Julio-Gonzalez de Valence (Spain), Tel Aviv, and Buenos Aires.

Since 2005, Adami is represented at Galerie Templon, Paris.